SAM KHAN JR., Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle |
March 27, 2010

Baylor's Quincy Acy, front, works against Saint Mary's Omar Samhan during the first half of the Bears' rout of the Gaels at Reliant Stadium.

Coming into Friday's NCAA South Regional game between Baylor and Saint Mary's, much talk surrounded the Gaels' productive and charismatic center, Omar Samhan.

The Bears preferred to stay quiet on the subject.

“The scoreboard did the talking for us,” Baylor forward Ekpe Udoh said. “We didn't get into all that.”

After 40 minutes, the scoreboard spoke volumes. The Bears had a 72-49 victory and a berth against Duke in Sunday's regional final at Reliant Stadium.

Samhan, the 6-11 senior who averaged 30.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, was limited to 15 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go with nine rebounds. But most of his scoring came in the second half, when the game was out of reach.

Doing much of the work on Samhan was 7-0 center Josh Lomers and Udoh, a 6-10 junior.

“Josh is one of the strongest guys in the country,” Udoh said. “He does a great job. He does all the small things people don't recognize. He just did a great job on the defensive end.”

Samhan had a tough time getting looks and had trouble sinking shots whenever he did get the chance, going 1-of-8 from the field and scoring just three points in the first 20 minutes. The Gaels also struggled from the outside — customarily a strength for them — making it even tougher against the Bears' zone.

“It's a zone, so it's never easy inside,” Samhan said. “Knocking down shots or not knocking down shots — I got good looks and didn't make them. I missed a layup in the first half and stuff. So it wasn't our guards not knocking down shots — I just didn't play well.”

Baylor's size inside made things difficult all night for Samhan and the rest of the Gaels, who shot 35.2 percent as a team. Lomers, Udoh, 6-7 forward Quincy Acy and 6-10 forward Anthony Jones, a Yates High product, combined for 28 of the Bears' 41 rebounds. The Gaels finished with just 29 rebounds.

“That was our main focus,” Acy said of containing Samhan. “We have outstanding bigs. He's a great one. We wanted him to go one-on-one, and we had great length to contest him.”